On December 29, 1960 Piaggio designated Cushman Motor Works, a subsidiary
of Outboard Marine Corp. and maker of the Cushman motor scooters
as a US distributor for Vespas to be sold through Cushman's nationwide
dealer network. These scooters differed from those distributed by
Vescony only by having a cast Cushman badge fitted directly below the
legshield Vespa badge. Over the course of the three year distributor-ship
Cushman sold 5,848 Vespas, approximately 500 of which were GS150 VS5's,
the remainder were 8" wheeled, rotary-valved 125's and 150's.
My VS5 is a very late 1961 model with two unusual details, both concerning
the taillight. In mid-1960, the VS5 received an updated chromed taillight
assembly which made changing burned out bulbs much easier by having part
of the chrome fixture held on with an external screw, and this fixture
held in the one piece tail and brake light lenses. Before this,
the entire light housing had to be unscrewed from within the frame
and removed from the scooter to change bulbs. My GS is equipped with the older
style taillight, although mounting holes are present for the updated style.
Also unusual, the taillight that is present normally had an amber
brake light lens (apparently in the late 1950's, red had yet to be standardized
as an international brake light color), but mine is equipped with
a red lens, which is looks to be original. Perhaps the red lenses were added
for countries that had already passed lighting standards requiring
them. At any rate, it's an unusual item that's wrong for the year and
has a lens not listed in any Piaggio parts book. This older assembly wasn't used
across the board for Cushman GS150's as a close friend has one with the
correct later taillight. Normally, I would suspect that the light was dealer installed,
but no Cushman dealers would have associated this light with this scooter as their
sales began after it was deleted, so my guess is that Piaggio simply
(and inconsistently) pushed old stock off onto Cushman, which is far from unheard of.
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